Rita Silk - Nauni Defense Committee
Item #10429
Large flyer published in the aftermath of Rita Silk-Nauni’s sentencing in a 1980 murder case, which was ultimately thrown out a few years later, before her release in 1990.
Silk-Nauni, an indigenous woman, had left her abusive husband in California and fled toOklahoma with her son Derek. Lacking bus fare or transportation, mother and son walked two miles from the airport before they were stopped by police, who accused them of littering. When one of the police officers tried to force Derrick into the police car, Silk-Nauni went to her son’ said. In the melee, one officer was wounded and the other killed with the wounded officer’s gun. Silk-Nauni, herself badly injured, was charged with first-degree murder.
During the trial, the judge banned from the courtroom images and artifacts of indigenous culture and any visible support for Silk-Nauni. The court, instead, was packed with police officers, FBI agents, and other armed law enforcement officers. Tried by an all-white, upper-middle class jury, Silk-Nauni was convicted after two days, not of first-degree murder, butof manslaughter and shooting with intent to kill. The jury recommended a 150-year sentence; the judge condemned her “to spend the rest of her life in prison...if it were up to me, I would give her more.”
Organizers for her cause included American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) women Lois Red Elk and Hashi Hanta and the Feminist Women’s Health Center. The 1980 conviction was overturned in 1987, after it was revealed that the prosecutor in her case withheld information from the defense and encouraged one of the police officers to give false testimony. In 1988, she pled guilty to lesser charges and was finally released in December 1990, after 10 years and 8 months in prison. The Rita Silk-Nauni Defense Committee was organized by Frances Wise (1943-2011), along time activist in Oklahoma, and an enrolled member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
An important document of indigenous feminist struggle against the patriarchal armed wing of the state.
Price: $250.00